Elder Randall K. Bennett

It was at the height of his career as an orthodontist that Randall Kay Bennett and his wife, Shelley, felt “a distinct impression” to prepare to serve missions. This meant that they would need to sell their home right away.

The reason for the prompting didn’t become immediately apparent—it took three years for their home to sell, a process that “took a lot of patience” and required that they “show the Lord that we were really committed,” Elder Bennett says. “We continued to trust in the Lord and tried to stay close to Him through frequent temple attendance, daily scripture study, prayer, fasting, and service to others.”

Shortly after their home finally sold, Elder Bennett was called to serve at the Provo Missionary Training Center and then as president of the Russia Samara Mission.

“It was wonderful—and very humbling—to know that the Lord had been mindful of us and had been preparing us,” Elder Bennett said. “We have come to know that the Lord is aware of the thoughts of our minds and the feelings of our hearts. We have learned to trust that He knows better than we do, that He knows more than we do, and that He loves us.”

In addition to his callings as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy and a mission president, Elder Bennett has served as president and counselor in a Provo Missionary Training Center branch, member of a stake high council, counselor in a bishopric, ward Young Men president, various other callings, and as a missionary in the France Paris and France Toulouse Missions.

Elder Bennett earned a doctor of dental surgery degree from the University of Alberta (Canada) and a master’s degree in orthodontics from Loma Linda University in Southern California, USA.

Elder Bennett was born in June 1955 in Magrath, Alberta, Canada. His parents are Donald Kay Bennett and Anne Darlene Long. He married Shelley Dianne Watchman on April 23, 1977, in the Cardston Alberta Temple. They are the parents of four children.